A weekly show where knowledge junkies get their fix of trivia-tastic information.This week we’re excited to have on the awesomely talented Gregory Brothers (http://www.youtube.com/user/schmoyoho) to take a look at some of the fascinating tales behind your favorite songs.

You can find more from the Gregory Brothers at…
Schmoyoho: http://www.youtube.com/schmoyoho
TheGregoryBrothers: http://www.youtube.com/user/thegregorybrothers

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By: wildsPosted on Categories : Categories : Creating A Hit Song, How To Write Soul Music, How To Write Soul Music Songs, Most Popular Soul Songwriters, Motown Songwriters, R And B Songwriters, Self Publish SongwriterTags:

34 Replies to “33 Fascinating Songwriting Stories – mental_floss on YouTube (Ep. 42)”

  6. Why do they have a filter that makes it look much more dreary then it normally does… The. It does??? Ok, it does not look dreary normally, but in this vid it does…..u know why it means?

  14. The song American Woman was originally an improvisation by Burton Cummings and The Guess Who at a curling rink. Cummings was late so the band was jamming on stage to quiet down the increasingly impatient crowd. Burton then jumped on stage and improvised lyrics to the band's improvised music.

  17. "Satisfaction" was also written after the Stones got booed off the stage during their first ever show in the US, at Georgia Southern University. Everyone there at the time was into country, and that's still largely true, unfortunately.

  25. You mention Layla, but you don't mention Wonderful Tonight. Both written by Eric Clapton for Pattie Boyd. George Harrison also wrote I Need You and Something about her. That woman was a muse!!!

  27. Some corrections:

    The R.E.M. song inspired by the Dan Rather incident transposed the original quote. The assailants actually asked Rather “Kenneth, what is the frequency?” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Rather#.22Kenneth.2C_what_is_the_frequency.3F.22

    The actual title of the Rolling Stones song mentioned is “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”
    (It’s a big no-no to put quotes around something if it is not properly quoted.)

    The image of Eric Clapton dropped into the screen during the “Layla” (#18) description is misleading; it’s reversed, showing Clapton playing guitar as a lefty but he is a right-handed guitar player.

  28. They might be wrong about # 29??? I was always under the impression that Uptown Girl was written about Christie Brinkley; whom Billy Joel eventually married.

  30. Similar to Nilsson using a busy signal for "One Is A Lonely Number", the Bee Gees wrote "Jive Talkin'" based on the rhythm of their car driving over the expansion joints in a bridge.

  31. I hope they include how "Puff the Magic Dragon" got it's lyrics. (Hint: it's plagiarism, but not really 'cos the writer got paid)

    edit: Dang it! Well, the story goes that what's-his-name found a poem written by his roomate in college I think and later he turned that into a song.

  32. Tommy James of Tommie James and the Shondals was apparently suffering from writers block one day sitting in a New York hotel room when he glanced out the window and saw the acronym title for the Mutual of Omaha New York building…"M.O.N.Y". And thus the song Mony Mony was born. Alter to be re-popularized by Billy Idol.

  33. I think Sarah made an error at 8:03. It was "Part of Me" that was written for Russel Brand after she broke up with him. But I do think she'll release a break up song for John Mayer sometime soon. 

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